By ED BARK@unclebarkycom on TwitterCBS and NBC won the overall ratings wars against ABC’s bloated Bachelor tack-on Tuesday night, but advertiser-prized, “impressionable” 18-to-49-year-olds were easier targets.

CBS’ 7 p.m. episode of NCIS again had prime-time’s biggest haul of total D-FW viewers with 348,983 before the network’s Bull drew 277,762 to win the 8 p.m. hour. NBC’s combo of The Voice (263,518 viewers) and This Is Us (263,518) took the second place spots.

The live, two-hour The Bachelor: After the Rose ran third from 7 to 9 p.m. with 206,541 viewers.

Among 18-to-49-year-olds, This Is Us prevailed as the top scorer in the 8 p.m. hour with 121,704 viewers while the second half of The Bachelor was the runner-up with 90,497. Hour one of The Bachelor had 96,739 viewers in the 18-to-49 realm to win from 7 to 8 p.m.

OK, a few words about this farce. Host and Dallas native Chris Harrison, who’s made millions underestimating the intelligence of some American people, blew his lines early in the live Bachelor special.

“Well, we will be seeing another wedding proposal tonight,” he told viewers and a studio audience full of fellow traffic wreck watchers. “Could that happen tonight? Stranger things have happened.”

Harrison clearly was supposed to say, “Will we be seeing” another wedding proposal tonight? He knew there’d be one, because nothing that “big” on The Bachelor happens without pre-planning. When designated cad Arie Luyendyk, Jr. indeed did propose to the woman he’d earlier jilted -- Lauren Burnham -- Harrison said, “Congratulations, I did not see that coming.” Of course he did. But untruths are an art form on this show. It’s just that Harrison earlier bungled his script -- inadvertently telling viewers the already pre-ordained truth -- before duly parroting “Bachelor Nation” ad nauseum throughout the night.

Becca Kufrin, the woman with whom Arie broke up with on-camera in Monday night’s “shocking” season finale, of course will now be the star of ABC’s latest edition of The Bachelorette, coming this May. Numerous idiots on various websites have cried foul about how Arie “took a camera crew” with him to record poor Becca being devastated. Their argument is that she didn’t know anything about this, and being put on camera amounted to “stalking” in the post-Harvey Weinstein climate.

Number one, anyone who deep-sixes their dignity to be on The Bachelor or The Bachelorette knows full well that ABC completely calls the shots when it comes to putting people on camera. And don’t think for a second that participants don’t know when this is coming. The producers then edit as they please to fit whatever outcome they’ve already pretty much concocted.

Secondly, Becca said on Tuesday night’s live show that in the end she had no problem being on camera because it documented her devastation for the world to see. Harrison fed her the question, knowing full well that Becca wasn’t about to say anything like, “I felt completely violated by the producers of this show. They invaded my privacy and stole my dignity.”

After The Rose then closed with five new bachelors from the upcoming Bachelorette promenading onstage to profess their unadorned admiration for a now constantly giggling Becca.

How genuine is any of this? Ha! Just watch Lifetime’s Unreal, which lays bare The Bachelor/Bachelorette and has just started Season 3.

OK, let’s get to Tuesday’s local news derby results.

TEGNA8 nipped CBS11 for the top spot at 10 p.m. in total viewers and bested Fox4 by an equally close margin for the win among 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).

Fox4 again notched twin wins at 6 a.m., where it still hasn’t lost all winter. The station also drew the most 25-to-54-year-olds at 5 and 6 p.m.

NBC5 ranked first at 5 p.m. in total viewers and TEGNA8 won in this measurement at 6 p.m.